I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for search and selection of network cells in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services; for instance, voice, video, packet data, broadcast, and messaging services can be provided via such wireless communication systems. These systems can be multiple-access systems that are capable of supporting communication for multiple terminals by sharing available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems.
As the demand for high-rate and multimedia data services rapidly grows, there has been an effort toward implementation of efficient and robust communication systems with enhanced performance. For example, in recent years, users have started to replace fixed line communications with mobile communications and have increasingly demanded great voice quality, reliable service, and low prices.
In addition to mobile telephone networks currently in place, a new class of small base stations has emerged, which can be installed in the home of a user and provide indoor wireless coverage to mobile units using existing broadband Internet connections. Such personal miniature base stations are generally known as access point base stations, or, alternatively, Home Node B (HNB) or Femto cells. Typically, such miniature base stations are connected to the Internet and the network of a mobile operator via a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) router, cable modem, or the like.
Wireless communication systems can be configured to include a series of wireless access points, which can provide coverage for respective locations within the system. Such a network structure is generally referred to as a cellular network structure, and access points and/or the locations they respectively serve in the network are generally referred to as cells.
In a wireless network deployment with Home Node B (HNB) cells (e.g., access point base stations, femto cells, Home Evolved Node B (HeNB) cells, etc.), a terminal (e.g., a user equipment unit (UE), mobile terminal, access terminal, etc.) can be provisioned with a whitelist of allowed cells associated with a closed subscriber group (CSG) associated with the terminal. In some network implementations, a CSG cell can be associated with various special billing and/or other service benefits such that respective terminals having the CSG cell in its whitelist can leverage respective benefits provided by cell upon connection. Accordingly, in some cases it would be desirable to implement techniques for optimizing the extent to which respective benefits of a CSG cell can be leveraged by respective associated terminals.
Further, in some geographic areas, a wireless communication network deployment can utilize a significant number of cells (e.g., macro cells, pico cells, femto cells, etc.) that provide coverage for respective overlapping areas of service. In addition, respective cells providing coverage for a given geographic area can operate on a significant amount of frequency bands, sub-carriers, or the like. Conventionally, a terminal associated with a first cell can institute procedures for switching to a second cell upon finding that the second cell and/or a frequency at which the second cell operates is more favorable than the first cell and/or its associated frequency. However, in a dense network deployment associated with a large number of cells, a terminal can in some cases attempt cell reselection excessively, which can in turn cause battery loss, performance degradation, or the like. Accordingly, it would additionally be desirable to implement techniques for managing cell reselection in a wireless communication system that mitigate at least the above shortcomings.